The following is an overview of human rights violations in Iran on December 18th, 2018 based on the information compiled and verified by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

(1) On December 17th, 2018 in the National Steel Company workers protest, more than 42 workers have been arrested. The names of 10 more people are as the following: Hossein Asakereh, Meisam Al-Mahdi, Seyed Majid Mousavi, Amir Dehghan, Ahmad Bavi, Behzad Alikhani, Seyed Mostafa Mousavi, Majid Jalali, Arash Mohammadpour, and Behzad Shahbazi.

(2) Sepideh Gholian, a social rights’ activist, was released on bail. She looks very pale and weak after her release. She was arrested on November 18th while she was supporting the strike of the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane workers.

(3) A fire broke out accidentally at “Osveh Hasaneh” kindergarten in Zahedan. The fire broke out in a faulty oil stove being used for heating a classroom. Students Mona Khosroparast, Saba Arabi, and Maryam Nokandi died and Yekta Mirshekar is severely burnt.

(4) A United Nation committee on human rights approved a resolution on December 17th, 2018 urging Iran to stop its widespread use of arbitrary detention and expressing serious concern about its use of death penalty. Iran was urged to end widespread and serious restrictions including on freedom of assembly of political opponents, human rights defenders, labor leaders, environmentalists, academics, filmmakers, journalists, bloggers, social media users and others. The resolution strongly urges Iran to eliminate discrimination against women in law and practice and expresses “serious concern about ongoing severe limitations and restrictions on the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief.”

(5) Nazanin Zaghari requested parole but has not yet received any response from the judiciary officials. She is a British-Iranian dual citizen who has been detained in Iran since 3 April 2016. She was sentenced to five years imprisonment and has served half of her sentence now. She is also inneed of acute medical care.

(6) Two activists, Ansar Advaei 27 years old and Fardin Advaei 24 years old, were released in Uraman District in Sarvabad County and the two others, Hamid Ahmadi and Zaniyar Moradi remain in prison there. The reasons for these four citizens’ arrest, are still unknown.

(7) Hamid Ahmadi Maledeh, a juvenile offender who is accused of murder in a street fight was sentenced to death. He has been serving 11 years in the Rasht prison and was transferred three times to solitary confinement for execution but still is waiting on the death row.

(8) One of Nasrin Sotoudeh ‘s criminal charges is putting a flower bouquet by the electricity junction box in Enghelab street. She is a predominant human rights lawyer who has security-related charges.

(9) Farokh Abdi, a social network activist who was sentenced to 15 months in prison earlier this year and faced another 15 months conviction from another court in Urmia, was sentenced to five years imprisonment in an appeal court.

(10) A construction worker died in Yasuj due to unsafe workplace.

(11) According to Reporters Without Borders’ 2018 round-up of deadly attacks and abuses against journalists published on December 18, 2018, Iran still holds its position as one of the five largest prisons for journalists in the world. In this year, Hengameh Shahidi, Tahereh Riahi, Zeinab Karimian, Saleh Deldam, Morad Saghafi, Ramin Karimian, Alieh Matlabzadeh, Asal Emailzadeh, Bakhtiar Khoshnam, Mehdi Khazali, Abdolreza Davari, Sasan Aghai, Yaghma Fashkhami, Mohammad Mohajer, Alireza Tavakoli, Mohammad Mehdi Zamanzadeh, Saeed Mojtaba Bagheri, Javad Jamshidi, Nima Keshvari, Saeed Naghdi, Ali Ahmadinia, and Soheil Arabi are some of journalists, reporters or citizen journalists who have been arrested in 2018.

(12) City service workers of Karun and Zanjan cities have at least six months of unpaid wages.

(13) Another labor activist, Aram Mohammadi who was accused of “propaganda against the state” for participating in international Labor Day protest, began serving his sentence today.

(14) Mohammad-Reza Khatami was prosecuted because of his claims in an interview with Aparat (a video sharing service) that a voter Fraud was observed during 2009 presidential election.

(15) Retired personnel of various governmental organizations held protests in Tehran and other cities for their financial hardship.